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Tycho: In my grief, I paid a mad scientist twenty million dollars for a cybernetic replica of my dead wife. It was my wish that it look, feel and behave just as she did. Gabe: Is that it? Tycho: Yeah. Gabe: That's just a bucket on rollerskates. Tycho: It really wasn't a good investment. Penny Arcade
In realistic settings, this could be an orphan taken in by a parent who has recently lost a child (to death, relocation, etc). In a sci-fi setting, the typical trope is the lonely scientist who creates a robot, android or a clone in the image of the deceased (probably first seen in this form in the classic Metropolis).
If the Replacement Goldfish is unlucky, they constantly live in the shadow of the dead person and feel they can't measure up, which can also be the secret disappointment of the Mad Scientist.
When a lonely Evilutionary Biologist fills the void by cloning himself, he is a Truly Single Parent.
Examples:
Live Action TV
- K9 from Doctor Who was created by Professor Marius to replace the the dog he couldn't take to his new home, Titan.
- Also used with K9 in a later episode; after bidding farewell to Leela and K9, the Doctor immediately takes out a box marked "K9 Mark II".
- And again in the new series with K9 Mark IV being given to Sarah Jane Smith immediately after the heroic sacrifice of K9 Mark III.
- In Dark Angel, Max is eventually informed by her former commander and father figure, Donald Lydecker, who has been hunting her and the other escaped X5s for a long time, that her genetic code contains DNA preserved from his dead wife. She is not an exact duplicate, "more like inspired by".
- In Star Trek The Next Generation, Dr. Noonien Soong replaced his wife with an android (with her memories), despite the fact that she was going to divorce him. He went to extreme measures to make her seem human, even the most advanced technological equipment and everyone she ever met except Data couldn't tell the difference.
- Battlestar Galactica: Reports indicate that this trope is the origin of the Cylons in the modern series, as revealed in the prequel spin-off Caprica. Zoe Graystone and Tamara Adama are "revived" by their fathers as Cylons.
Anime
- Nuku Nuku from All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku is not quite a Replacement Goldfish, in that the scientist takes the brain of the cat he struck in an accident and resurrects it in the body of a hyper-powered, incredibly cute cybernetic cat-brained girl.
- Astro Boy in Astro Boy, a replacement for the son Doctor Tenma lost, who died in a car accident playing with a robotic car that Doctor Tenma gave him to make up for the fact that he was so obsessed with developing a super-robot, that he forgot to pay attention to his son. In one version, he was about to apologize for neglecting his son when he got the news.
- Now the incredible super-powers? If you're going to make a robot son, you want it to be the best robot ever! And not get hit by a car.
- And have machine guns in its ass.
- And he already had the plans mostly finished...
- Honey in Cutey Honey, a partial clone. Specifically told by her father that she was her own person, though.
- In the anime Full Metal Alchemist, Majihal creates simulacra of his lost love interest from years ago. Turns out she was alive, but he had become so obsessed with perfecting his ideal android that he refused to accept an average-looking middle-aged woman as the genuine article. Alchemist Sho Tucker also is obsessed with using human transmutation to recreate his lost daughter, whom he "killed" by using as ingredients in a transmutation experiment, which then died. (In addition, this is pretty much the reason anyone creates homunculi; the ones made for reasons other than replacing dead loved ones are exceptions.) There are also two Replacement Goldfish relationships that complement and parallel each other. The orphaned Elric brothers take on their alchemy teacher Izumi as a mother figure, while Izumi herself had a stillborn child and now accepts the Elrics as surrogate children. The Homunculi born of the Elrics' and Izumi's attempts at resurrection were failed Replacement Goldfish, born monstrously deformed. They each survived to grow into a human form, and while they hate and reject the roles they were created to fill, they quickly adopt each other as dysfunctional Goldfish of sorts. (Note that the first alchemist doesn't exist in the manga and Tucker was killed shortly after "killing" his lost daughter. The first Replacement Goldfish relationship was still in the manga, but the characters of the Homunculi in question do not exist in the manga.)
- Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion is essentially a genetically engineered clone designed partly from Gendo's point of view as a stand-in for his dead wife, Yui, making their relationship seem substantially more bizarre and creepy.
- Topping this, Rei is essentially a Replacement Goldfish for herself: she was strangled at age 6 or so by Naoko Akagi and replaced; the replacement died fighting the 16th Angel and a third clone was pulled out of storage.
- An old man in Rozen Maiden convinced himself the boyish doll Souseiseki was his child, Kazuki, and went so far as to dress her in boy's clothing.
- Variation: Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha was a "short-term" replacement for the villainess' daughter, whom said villainess was attempting to resurrect. Fate's inability to mimic this daughter led to much suffering on her part.
- In the Pokémon short story "The Birth of Mewtwo", the scientist who was working on Mewtwo was attempting to recreate his daughter. He was successful only in creating a clone that would live for only a year in a tank.
- Pokemon also features Jessie attempting (and of course, failing) to train a Ditto to become a replacement goldfish for an ex-boyfriend.
- In The Big O anime, R. Dorothy Wainwright was an android created as a surrogate for the deceased daughter of her creator.
- Likewise Naomi Armitage in Armitage III.
- In Chobits, Minoru's persocom Yuzuki, a replacement for his sister (whom you might recognize as Kaede from Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer).
- It should be noted, though, that he eventually understands what he is doing to Yuzuki and decides to stop updating his sister's personality into her. Also, the whole thing might be insane if it came from a scientist with no interest for ethics, but it's understandable since he's a lonely 12-year-old who needs some kind of emotional protector.
- Inverted in AIR. Minagi's mother has been traumatized by her miscarriage and thinks that Minagi is the dead baby and there was no older child, leaving Minagi to live as "Michiru" at home. Minagi's relationship with her mother deteriorates along with her mother's mental state, and she starts blaming herself for the baby's fate.
- Nataku in X1999 is the botched, emotionless, genderless clone of the resident mad scientist's dead daughter.
- In Touka Gettan, Yomiko considers Touka to be her dead daughter.
- Eris did this with her dead love Rezo, giving us Copy Rezo.
- Suzu in Hotori - Tada Saiwai o Koinegau is a robot replacement for a couple who has recently lost their son to illness, and struggles with the question of whether he has an identity of his own. The "doctor" who's overseeing the process of implanting the dead boy's memories into Suzu also has a terminally ill daughter, but (perhaps wisely) decides against getting a Replacement Goldfish because he's got enough experience with the robot doubles to know that however good the replacement is, it will never really be her.
- There's a trace of this in Sonic X where Shadow the Hedgehog, despite his current outright abbhorence of humans, chooses to save Chris Thorndyke from an exploding island after envisioning him as Maria Robotnik (it's all the eyes, apparantly). Somewhat subverted as it does not stop him from bashing the kid about a bit several episodes on.
- Is it still Replacement Goldfish if, in Kodomo no Jikan, the female lead (age 9-10) is being raised up by her guardian (both husband to her dead mother and her cousin) to be a replacement for said dead wife? Even to the Squickable point of leaving hickeys on the back of her neck?
Comic Books
- Y The Last Man averts this in the Distant Finale. Yorick refuses to even consider the offer implied by theories concerning 'bringing back' any number of dead women and a sample of 355's hair.
- Played rather straight in the same series' penultimate chapter, when Dr. Matsumori is revealed to have used his estranged daughter's tissue samples in the hopes of being a proper father to her this time around. Alison Mann (neé Atsuko Matsumori) is annoyed over it, but she did not like the guy anyway even before finding out he had sabatoged her own cloning project out of sheer ego.
Film
- American live action example: In Vertigo, Scottie molds the brunette Judy into the image of the elegant blond Madeleine after the latter woman breaks his heart by committing suicide. Cruelly ironic once learned that Judy really is the "Madeleine" he'd known — she impersonated the real Madeleine as part of Elster's plan to cover up his murder of his wife.
- In A.I., the android child David is adopted as a replacement for Henry and Monica's comatose son. The problems really begin when the "real" son wakes up.
Literature
- The classic literary example, pleasantly twisty, would have to be Rebecca.
- Half-averted in the short story Ethan of Athos: Terrance brings his wife's corpse to the best scientists money can buy and asks them to revive her. They can't, but offer to create a clone identical to Janine in looks, personality, and mannerisms - perhaps even with a few improvements. Terrance declines, but he does have the scientists splice her DNA into donor ovaries so that he can have thousands or millions of Janine's babies.
- In Forever Amber, the heroine Amber marries the creepy, eldery Earl of Radclyffe. It turns out he's attracted to her because of her resemblence to his long-lost love, Judith, and even has Amber wear Judith's wedding gown. Neither Radclyffe nor Amber realize that Judith was Amber's mother.
Western Animation
- Danielle in Danny Phantom was created as an imperfect clone of the main character (not only physically younger and female, but with an unstable body). She was a stepping stone on the way to creating a perfected clone, and when she found out, turned into a Tykebomb.
- Odd spin: In Transformers: Beast Wars, Dinobot's clones were replacement attack dogs. One was made after he defected to the good guys, another after his Heroic Sacrifice. Megatron seemed pleased with these clones, except when they followed their template's footsteps a little too closely.
- In Disney's Tarzan, the titular character was adopted by Kala who recently lost her baby to Sabor.
- In {{Avatar: The Last Airbender}}, Iroh begins treating Zuko like a son after his own child, Lu Ten, dies in battle. He seems to love Zuko for who he is, however, and doesn't project Lu Ten onto him.
Video Games
- In the anime and videogame of Xenosaga the character of MOMO was an Artificial Human reconstruction of her creator's daughter, Sakura.
- Actually he went a little further than that, Momo being the 100th Replacement Goldfish he created in a full scale production line of androids with her face. His wife on the other hand was none too pleased with seeing a hundred copies of her dead daughter running about the galaxy and mentioned as much.
- In Baldurs Gate II, the Big Bad tried to clone his long-lost love.
- Subversion: In Sam and Max: Season 1, Sam and Max actually get a replacement goldfish, and they worry he'll find out.
- In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, the Riku Replica engineered by Vexen realizes he's a copy (but considers himself better than the real Riku). That is, until Namine modifies his memories so he thinks he is Riku.
- In the Rockman EXE/Megaman Battle Network series Rockman/Megaman was made by Netto/Lans father FROM his dead son Hub in latter games in the series this is spoken of casually, this is also the reason Netto/Lan can use his Eleventh Hour Superpower.
- In the Nintendo DS game Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Lady Dahlia is a robot, like everyone else in St. Mystere except for Flora. She was created by Baron Reinhold to be a replacement for his dead wife. However, her existence as a replacement for the dead wife was so traumatic to his daughter that he had the robot's memory wiped and the Lady Dahlia personality created instead.
Web Comics
- In El Goonish Shive, Grace was created as a replacement for a scientist's daughter, who died in a car crash. She considers the original Grace her mother, and calls the scientist her grandfather.
- This xkcd strip has one character describe doing this in a video game, and then start to evoke a "troubling" extension of the concept to real life.
- A somewhat strange example in Girl Genius involves the Sturmvoraus family. After Anevka Sturmvoraus is exposed to the Geisterdamen's summoning machine by her father, her brother, Tarvek, builds a life-support chamber connected to a pneumatic clockwork girl, so that she can still communicate with the outside world while being kept alive and protected. The puppet becomes sentient to the degree that when the organic Anevka actually dies, it goes on believing that it is still being controlled by a living master, instead of being self-aware, and fools everyone but Tarvek as well. Eventually, the Anevka personality of the puppet is deactivated after it becomes too much of an interference, and is replaced by the personality of the Other.
- In Misfile Ash is Kate's surrogate for her dead sister. Kate explicitly saying she needs to find a sister in her in one strip. Naturally boy turned girl Ash finds this turn of events rather disconcerting to say the least.
Tabletop Games
- In the storyline for the Magic The Gathering set Planeshift, Yawgmoth (the Big Bad) grants Crovax (the Dragon) a Replacement Goldfish for his lost love, Selenia. Later Crovax lures Gerrard (the main protagonist) to the dark side with false promises of a Replacement Goldfish of his own, though Gerrard sees through the ruse in time. It is unclear whether Crovax realizes that his Selenia Mark II is not the genuine article.
Real Life
- A documentary about the children of Holocaust survivors (Jews, BBC Four, June 2008) featured a woman who had survived Auschwitz but whose young daughter had been gassed there. Later she settled in Britain, remarried and had another daughter, who was named after the first one.
- It was once fairly common to name a baby after its deceased sibling. The artist Vincent van Gogh was named after a brother who'd died one year before his own birth.
- It was even once fairly common (and might still be...) to name a child after what the parents would've called a stillborn or aborted baby had it lived. Have fun in therapy, kid!
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